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Pakistani forces take control of area in Khyber
2008-06-29
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Paramilitary troops returned Sunday to posts they had been forced to abandon and Pakistani forces widened their offensive against militants operating in a volatile tribal area along the Afghan border, an official said. The government launched the operation Saturday because the militants in the Khyber region presented an "immediate problem," Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said. The militants began threatening Peshawar and ambushing supply convoys bound for U.S.-led coalition troops in Afghanistan. The military operation appears to be a shift in strategy by Pakistan's new government, backing its calls for peace deals in the tribal areas with the threat of forceful action against militants who get out of line. The United States has criticized the move for peace deals, saying it gives militants the freedom to regroup for attacks on U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Speaking to reporters in Lahore, Gilani defended the peace deals, but warned that authorities will resort to force "if (the groups) backtrack from their agreements and damage state property." Troops from the paramilitary Frontier Corps, backed by tanks and armored personnel carriers, quickly cleared militants out of the Bara region, said Muhammad Siddiq Khan, a local official. A tribal paramilitary force that had been forced to abandon its posts in the region several months ago returned to the checkpoints Sunday, he said. The Frontier Corps met no resistance as it moved into other areas outside Bara, destroying militant bases along the way, he said. The forces also destroyed a radio station used by the militants to broadcast propaganda and uncovered a torture chamber, said Rehman Malik, head of the Interior Ministry. He called the operation "very successful" and said the government's authority had been re-established and Peshawar was "totally safe." "Those who commit crimes and believe that they are safe, they will not be allowed to remain safe," he said. On Saturday, authorities shelled militant hideouts and blew up the headquarters of militant leader Menghal Bagh, who had apparently fled. Another possible target was Haji Namdar's Vice and Virtue Movement, which is suspected of attacks against coalition soldiers in Afghanistan. Officials in Kabul welcomed the operation in Khyber and reiterated their suspicion that a surge in violence in Afghanistan was partly due to the lack of pressure on militants in Pakistan's tribal areas. "We endorse this operation, we want this operation to be continued and we want this operation to be successful," Afghanistan's Defense Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said. NATO spokesman Brig. Gen. Carlos Branco said "everything that can minimize the threat in Afghanistan is good for us." "We know that as long as insurgents can operate safely on the Pakistan side of the border, then there cannot be security in Afghanistan," said Mark Laity, another alliance spokesman. Muslim Khan, a militant spokesman in Swat, suggested the government had launched the operation at the behest of the United States. "On the one side they are holding peace talks and on the other side they are breaking peace agreements and then carrying out operations against tribesmen," he told Dawn television. Baitullah Mehsud, the top Taliban leader in Pakistan, said he was suspending talks between his allies and the government in the wake of the offensive and implied his forces could cause trouble in Pakistan's main cities. Maj. Gen. Alam Khattak, head of the Frontier Corps, hinted this would not be the only operation against militants and other officials said the volatile Swat region could be next. On Sunday, a remote-controlled bomb blast killed two soldiers on a foot patrol in Swat's Matta area, a former militant stronghold, army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said. Pro-Taliban fighters have battled security forces in Swat in recent months, despite a peace deal between militants and the new provincial government. ___ Associated Press writers Saadaqat Jan in Islamabad and Steve Graham in Kabul contributed to this report.
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